West Ham Snapshot: Loads of importance leading up to the Arsenal
West Ham United will face off in yet another London derby this month. This time, it’s against Arsenal. This matchup has plenty of implications for the futures of both clubs and a win could steady the ship for now.
As always, Manuel Pellegrini sat down in front of the lights and cameras on Friday afternoon to discuss the upcoming matchup between West Ham and the Gunners, however, this time was the 4th time this week he sat down for a press conference only adding emphasis to this match and his coaching career.
As he faced a plethora of questions, two stood out that relate to Pellegrini himself and this match upcoming. The first question worked around an interesting short week in the EPL and the importance of this matchup.
The Gaffer responded with “It is very important because this season is a special season in the Premier League. There are around 10 or 11 places within 4, 5, or 6 points.”
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The second question that stood out was about the poor Hammers run as of late and if the pressure is mounting or not:
"“As I always say, the pressure doesn’t link with the results. The pressure for me is in every game, to do it better, play well and win the game. You do not need to be in a bad position, without wins in so many games, to start to feel the pressure. The pressure is there always.”"
The responses to both questions seem to be a bit of a cop-out to what is going on, but we’ve seen that over the past few weeks in Pellegrini’s pressers. It’s true, the table is tight but to say that there isn’t any pressure or that it’s not linked seems to be a bit farfetched.
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Additionally to the press conference, there was some injury news and updates released to the media. It has been reported by Football.London that both Lukasz Fabianski and Manuel Lanzini are continuing to recover. Both Jack Wilshere and Winston Reid have resumed working with the squad and Michail Antonio will be a match time decision.
In less relevant news, both Arsenal and West ham will be battling for the title of the worst club in London at the moment. With the Hammers sitting in 15th and the Gunners sitting in 10th, they are separated by just 3 points. The Hammers could jump as high as 9th with a win and the Gunners could climb up to a Europa League spot if all goes well.
In the last 4 EPL matches against each other, Arsenal lead the matchup with 2 wins to West Ham’s 1. The teams also drew once in the past 3 seasons but West Ham did get the latest laugh with a 1-0 win last January with the help of Declan Rice and his first-ever EPL goal.
Besides what Pellegrini said and what the clubs table placements are, this match is huge for West Ham and its manager. Club owners have stated they would reevaluate Pellegrini after the Southampton match but with just 3 points in the past 5 matches, things won’t be looking good if they cannot pull together a win on Monday night.
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Arsenal themselves have a lot of question marks to answer so this Monday night matchup will be edgy from the start as both sides will try to redeem themselves and their managerial staff.